Old School Training

Indeed it is.

 

Maricano would run up the steepest hill and down the down bit backward over and over again until he collapses .Lots people think that the rock had a obsessive compulsive disorder which he channelled into training. He was incredibly fit.

 

Load of cobblers.

If you listen to some of the tales of his training, goodness me! Here we go...

He'd run up and down a hill until he collapsed
Then he'd go on a 10 mile walk
Then he'd hit a heavy bag for 6 hours
Then he'd go on another 10 mile walk

No doubt he was a freak, but the body can only take so much.

 

Ali chopped a lot of wood too

 

Sorry but how can anyone run down the steepest hill backwards? Unless one of Marciano's abilities was the ability to defy the laws of gravity, it is just impossible to RUN down a steep hill backwards. It would be hard enough to simply walk backwards down a steep hill without falling onto your back and doing yourself an injury.

Seems apt that this about a tall steep hill though because this sounds like a extremely tall tale.

 

Those guys way back in the day who fought like 40 rounds would do a lot of walking. Like walking at a high pace for miles and miles.

 

Lewis definitely did I have seen him say it on camera sitting next to Emanuel Stewart. It was right around the time when he had just fought Vitali Klitschko.

 

I am not sure about Rocky's thinking or how to gauge his reasoning he was simply all in and committed mind body and soul to winning as a result he was possessed in training. He was smart enough to know he had limited style choices and physical disadvantages against everyone. I think Marciano trained fanatically and tried everything he had seen or heard of while training I doubted many fighters denied themselves and trained that hard most are not that committed due to the talent differential.....caveat that with the more talented just don't have to work near as hard as the Rock did to win.....Rocky was as conditioned as any athlete alive and I think he tried anything old or new if it worked.

 

They also fought at a much slower pace.....I remember a fighter once saying his improvement, stamina and skills were because he was a fighter and trained fighting and didn't swing hammers, do CrossFit or lift weights he fought.

 

Agreed, most good fighters go through a conditioning camp to lose weight and build stamina and then start fight camp

 

Yeah for sure. I think those guys back then were not on the level of the fighters today. They didn't have the same skill. And they didn't have the same muscle development for what that's worth. I think it would be a lot of 1st round KO's for let's say Mike Tyson.

 

I'd say that's why fighters like Hatton had shorter careers and fighters like Floyd had longer careers.

Their styles clearly were a factor in how long their careers lasted, but Hatton was spending like 6 weeks of a 12 week camp LOSING WEIGHT to get into fight shape! That is mental. That's six weeks that could have been devoted to nailing the gameplan/working on skills.

The safest bet is walking around at your fighting weight.

 

That explains how he collapsed! ;-)

 

That makes sense.

 

I and just about every other boxer Ive known who kept running after their fighting days would disagree that running destroys the body as long as one is realistic about ageing and limitations. Several long distance runners I know did wear their knee's out badly but thats going beyond and doing it for years. For most boxers nothing can replace running for increasing stamina. Running up stairs, etc. can put a little more in the tank as a variation but doing forms of cardio, swimming, jumping rope, all great, aren't going to do the total trick for most.

Bruce Lee did open eyes with his regime of light weights done fairly quick as it was easy to see it didnt dimish speed or cause a fighter to become overly muscle bound, the fear up to the early seventies. Until then weight lifting per say was unheard of in boxing gyms, all of the how to box books from the twenties on taught to avoid them.

Swinging an axe or as Fitzimmons did in his trade the irons can help alot in the shoulders and arms and these along with some other older methods are duplicated today with invention but in the end its doing the same thing in different ways.

Pad work is a big plus in modern times and is seen in every gym now! One final note is that for the professional none of the older books taught to go from running to the gym but rather to do several miles in the morning, gym work in the afternoon and then finish up with several more miles, or variations of this.